QUEEN CITY, Mo. – With three minutes to play in the final quarter of the Class 2 District 6 girls first round game, Schuyler County and Putnam County were tied at 42-42. In those final three minutes the Lady Rams would go on a 12-4 run and win, 54-46, advancing to the semifinals.

The Midgetettes had come back from their largest deficit of the night to tie the game after it looked like Schuyler was going to take control when Caley Sessions corralled a loose ball off the fingertips of Sam Shipley and drove it in for an uncontested layup, putting SC up 42-33.

PC would make their run, scoring five of their nine points in the 9-0 run at the free throw line. At the free throw line is right where Schuyler closed this one out as they scored seven of their final 12 from the stripe.

“I thought we handled the pressure a lot better tonight, when we needed big plays we had a lot of kids step up and take on that challenge,” said Schuyler County head coach Thomas Kirkland.

The Lady Midgets had just beaten the Lady Rams in Queen City last week, however Monday was a different ball game.

“They just wanted it worse than we did. They out-rebounded us, beat us to loose balls, they just wanted it more. After we got over the hump and finally tied it up in the fourth I thought we would be alright, but I think we kind of just settled after that, and you can’t do that in a big ball game like this,” said Putnam County head coach Craig DeVore.

A big moment in the game came when Shipley picked up her fourth personal foul with 6:45 left in the game. DeVore left the senior in the game, and the decision proved to be a wise one as she led the PC comeback. However, with 2:09 to go and trailing by four, Shipley turned the ball over and was forced to foul, ending her night and her Putnam career.

“It was pretty depressing, not the way I wanted to end my career. I love these girls we are like a family so I trusted them to have my back, but it just didn’t work out,” said Shipley.

This was only Shipley’s fifth game of season as she missed the majority of the season with a back injury.

Fellow senior Dakota Owings also had her PC career come to an end with the loss.

“We played kind of sloppy and were kind of all over the place. We had a lot of jitters this week that we didn’t have last week and there wasn’t as much pressure,” said Owings.

Page 2 of 2 - DeVore has coached the Lady Midgets through a turbulent season that saw them lose two senior starters, have one return make a late season run, and then lose to a team they beat handily just a week ago.

“Samantha is a great basketball player who is a leader on and off the floor. Losing her hurt us. She gave us a big boost there for a couple games and the girls started relying on her and then you get in a big game like this and forget you have to step up,” said DeVore.

The Lady Rams out-physicalled Putnam County on Monday night as the referees let both teams decided the outcome of the game.

“It was physical it was crazy, we were just trying to calm down so we didn’t turn it over and run the plays because they do work. We just had to relax and play our defense so that we didn’t let them make another comeback,” said Sessions.

This was a big win for Schuyler County as they moved into the semifinal round after exiting last year’s district tournament in the first round. Things wont get any easier for SC as they will face either Knox County or Milan on Thursday.

“We will play one of our conference rivals who we have just seen, so we just take it one game at a time, but those are both teams we look forward to playing,” said Kirkland.